In making the poster for troilus and cressida I was playing off of the idea of the conflict between personal interests and the interests of the state in the play. The picture is to demonstrate the contradiction between the violence of war and the love for which the war is supposedly fought. The quote at the bottom of the poster is to represent the debatable true motives behind the conflict. Is it truly over love? Or the hurt pride of agamemnon and troilus?

You have to admit, it’s similar.The best character in the playStart off with two minor characters speaking in proseLeontes and Polixenes seem like good brosThe bear does not appearPolixenes has been visiting for nine months, which doesn’t make it sound like he’s governing his own kingdom too well…Neither wants to compromiseLeontes makes Hermione talk to Polixenes even though he’s going to be jealous when Hermione talks to Polixenes“Well said, Hermione”. But not said well enough that you won’t try to execute her later.Sassy Hermione is sassyforeshadowing of Hermione’s imprisonmentCute backstory time

This movie poster for The Winter’s Tale is focused towards the genre of romance. The flowers (background) represent love and romance. The woman emerging form water is symbolic for a clean slate (which foreshadows the ending). The two faces represent change in heart. This is something many characters in the play experience whether it be from angry to regretful, thievery to honesty, hatred to love, etc. The quote at the bottom is just a foreshadowing of the end of the play as well.

Last weekend, I finally got to see my first live play ever – King Lear at Max Bell Theater.

I found it thoroughly enjoyable (also it was more fun than the movie, for me at least). Here is a response on my experience with the play as opposed to the movie.

My first dilemma with the play was, well, on what I should be wearing. It was my first live play ever, and Shakespearean too – I wanted to be sophisticated (silly little whims, I know). On the other hand, with the movie, the first dilemma was: I have read the play, how long can I delay watching the movie until it is absolutely necessary?

Jokes aside (yes, those were jokes. Ha ha, very funny, Jayesha, please proceed), it was certainly not what I had expected. There were lighting directions and sound effects. It did aid in where the director had wanted to focus the scene on. However, everything else that was not directly under the spotlight was till open to interpretation and analyzing. With the movie, the camera would zoom into a specific part of the act and force you to focus on that.

Furthermore, I felt that the actors that played the characters were more close to my own imagination when I first read the play. The costuming, however, were very similar in the movie and the play. King Lear is initially dressed in red: madness, passion, rage. The two sisters are dressed in darker colors: evil, cunning, deceitful, jealous. And Cordelia is in lighter colors: pure, innocent, untarnished.

Moreover, I did notice the play was easier to follow along with, when compared to the movie. The lines were still powerfully delivered, but they were clear and carried more raw emotion. Perhaps, it was because the actors knew that this was now or never, as opposed to in a movie, when you have the liberty of redoing a scene if there is a light mishap.

I also found the play more captivating than the movie. The movie seemed to lag on and on, although they were the same lengths.

The Ticket 😀

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I know this is something I would like to make a part of my hobbies – live plays and reviews on them.

Hello all. I’d like to discuss the text-adventure game I created for The Winter’s Tale. A generation of thinking gamers that grew up with Nintendo have been replaced by the visually-fuelled majority crowd who play Angry Birds and Clash of Clans and as a result, it seems that the magic of imagination has been removed from video games. My goal with creating this game for The Winter’s Tale was to require the player to not only have some background knowledge from the play itself, but to be able to think outside of the game when a puzzle was presented. Using the command list I supplied (in my earlier post and now at the bottom of this one) the game can be completed in under 5 minutes. To the unprepared player, it may take a considerable amount of time longer, but this was the goal.

Take a walk with me.

You walk onto the Central Bohemian Shore. The waves are almost touching your feet and you can see a rusty key. You know the cabin you were just at needs a rusty key to be unlocked, so you snatch it up triumphantly and run back over to the cabin. When you unlock the cabin, go in, and look around, it seems that the only thing in there is a fishing rod sitting in the corner. This is not what you were looking for, but you take it anyways, as it may help you in the future.

This kind of experience is what I was aiming for, where players need to both imagine the action happening and also think outside of the now-traditional “go to x, pick up x” style of play. There are no ways to get stuck in this game and as far as my knowledge in testing goes, there are no bugs. So endure and you will be rewarded.

Now for the creative license.

First though, I realize I should have made this more explicit. YOU are Antigonus in this game.

In the original scene, Antigonus and the mariner appear on the Bohemian beach with the baby wrapped in Hermione’s mantle and the box of letters ready to go. Antigonus makes a lengthy speech, sets the baby down, and exits, pursued by a bear. Obviously enough, this wouldn’t have made a very interesting game. So like a true text-adventure, I created my gameplay through making these objects retrievable in the environment. In order to progress north past the apparition, you need to retrieve the mantle to wrap the baby in and the box of letters to instruct her care. Both items require the player to obtain preliminary items, or puzzle pieces if you would, to unlock certain areas or obtain other items required in getting them. Some of the puzzles are very simple, such as “That cave is too dark to go into.” By thinking about it for a bit, a player may realize that a light source could be helpful in this situation, so one may go look for a light source such as a lantern. Other puzzles may require more thinking, but like I said, I built this in the spirit of classic text-adventure games like Zork, so a bit of logic is required when a prompt appears saying “There appears to be a chest floating in the water. Maybe you could get it with some sort of rope or line…”

You did pick up that fishing rod earlier…

Now onto the apparition. In the original text, Antigonus described a ghostly version of Hermione coming to him the previous night, warning him about his current task, and telling him what to leave with the baby and what to name it. Instead of just writing all this text at the beginning of the game, I decided to put Hermione’s apparition in-game in a strange, ethereal, dream world. By doing this, I can create the last essential item needed in a text-adventure game, namely a quest-giver, and I can also keep Hermione’s lines to Antigonus intact in the form of direct conversation with the player character.

I hope this helped anyone who was confused or unsure of what I was trying to do, and I hope those who try it are able to solve my puzzles! Good luck and happy gaming!